A Human Emotion
by StarFormerAdira
Summary: 'You think that you might be safe from me, across light-years and solar systems and galaxies, but you're wrong. I can read your mind just as easily as I can transport from place to place, with a snap of my fingers, and sometimes not even with that.' QxPicard


**A/N: I think Q is one of the awesomest characters in Star Trek. He's probably somewhere up there in my Top 10 Favourites. I was watching 'True Q' the other day, and I thought about what I'd do if I ever met John de Lancie, and my excitement literally levitated me into the air. Never underestimate the power of fangirlism. **

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**A Human Emotion**

Jean-Luc Picard woke up because Q was blowing on his ear.

He was in his quarters, in his own bed, which he was grateful for, because Q could've literally transported him anywhere while he was sleeping. The man – or omnipotent being – himself was lying beside Picard, idly stretched out like a Roman emperor on a luxurious couch, and rather close for comfort, hence the blowing on his ear.

Picard opened his eyes, and then shut them again, hoping in vain that this was a nightmare. "Q," he muttered, a hint of annoyance in his tone, and Q promptly stopped with the blowing.

"Good morning, Jean-Luc." That sultry tone made those words sound like the most seductive phrase possible, and Picard opened his eyes again, unwilling to let Q out of his sight. "And how are you this fine Alpha shift?"

Picard sat up in bed and turned his full gaze on Q, with enough contemptuousness in his eyes to make a Klingon turn and run for his mother. Q, however, just looked up at him with that infuriating smirk of his. "I would be a lot _better_," Picard growled, "if you hadn't _woken me up_."

Q dismissed this with a casual wave of his hand. "Well, I wasn't going to sit and wait around for you to regain consciousness by yourself. I tried to, but it got so awfully _boring._ I decided to just wake you up now, and to hell with it."

Picard turned away before his emotions could get the better of him and he smacked Q. It had been his fantasy ever since they'd encountered him at Farpoint, except he knew it wouldn't have any effect on Q and Starfleet captains just didn't run round hitting omnipotent species, no matter how irritating they were. That was why they were captains, and not still second-rate lieutenants.

He got up and crossed the room, feeling uncomfortable in just his sleepwear and underneath the shrewd gaze of Q at the same time.

Q called after him just before the door slid shut between the adjacent rooms. "You could've just told me to look away."

Picard seriously didn't feel safe with that pain in the behind only in the other room, so he just pulled on his trousers over his shorts and his Starfleet jacket over his tunic, and managed to retain some of his dignity before returning into his bedroom. Q hadn't moved, and was lazily examining his nails, the very picture of innocence.

Picard stood by the wall and crossed his arms. "Alright, why are you here?"

"Does there have to be a reason?" Q whined, rolling over onto his stomach to look at him, his unearned uniform staying pristine.

"There normally is," Picard answered. "I'd like to know it, sooner than later." He tilted his head. "Are you human again?"

Q looked offended, and Picard filed that away for possible later insults. "Hardly! The Continuum learned from its mistakes when it expelled _me_, _mon capitaine. _In all seriousness –" Picard rolled his eyes, "– this is a social visit; I'm just here for some fun."

"Well, go have fun on the other side of the galaxy and leave me alone," Picard grumbled. "Honestly, the whole of the universe at your disposal and you choose to come bother the _Enterprise_?"

Q stood up abruptly, pulling down the front of his shirt to straighten it, as both Picard and Riker had taken to doing. "Alright, you've forced my hand, Jean-Luc." He walked forwards a few steps, as quiet as a cat on the carpeted floor of Picard's quarters. "Do you remember the last time I was here?"

Picard glared at him. "Let me see – the time you tried to kidnap an innocent girl, whose only crime was that her parents had disproved the Continuum? Yes, I think I remember that well enough."

Q waved his hand again. "Water under the bridge, _mon capitaine. _No, see, I was leaving with Amanda, and I couldn't help a little...mind-read, while I was on my way out."

To anyone else – anyone _human_, Q reflected – Picard would've remained indifferent. He, however, easily picked up on the small tell-tale signs that he betrayed – the way his back straightened, and his jaw tightened, and he shifted his weight from both legs onto just one.

"And was this intentional?" Picard asked, sounding casual and completely unbothered, but Q could effortlessly see through the facade. He had to stop himself from literally bouncing in excitement. Teasing Picard was fun, but this was even _better_.

Q retained his cool persona and shrugged. "Who knows? Not me. The Klingon was thinking about war and violence, as usual..." He began to pace, slowly and leisurely, up and down the room. "...dear Beverly was thinking about my bad points, as impossible as it is to believe I even _have _any. Must have been her imagination. Riker was thinking about Amanda, and some little misunderstanding they had in ten forward. The others – well, I couldn't tell you what the others were thinking, I wasn't interested in them. You, though..."

He had stopped pacing, and that halt in movement had brought in directly in front of Picard. The _Enterprise_'s captain had dropped his arms and was holding them stiffly by his sides, and his next sentence was one aimed desperately at humour and an attempt to avoid the situation. "I'm surprised you hadn't read our minds earlier."

With a slam, Q's hands landed on either side of Picard's head, braced against the wall. Q, who had never really grasped the notion of personal space, leant in until they were almost touching. Picard hadn't drawn away, but he didn't look very happy about the arrangement, either. Q knew, however, that it was all just an act. Picard had never had any trouble pretending, not with his love of Shakespeare and theatre and dramatic literature. But Q had seen through all that, and not to give himself credit, but it hadn't exactly been hard.

"It was so _interesting, _Jean-Luc," Q murmured, "my quick delve through your mind."

"You invaded my privacy," Picard snapped, having dropped the amusement ages ago.

"So interesting," Q continued, as if he hadn't spoken, "that I wanted to find out more. You think that you might be safe from me, across light-years and solar systems and galaxies, but you're wrong. I can read your mind just as easily as I can transport from place to place, with a snap of my fingers, and sometimes not even with that. So as me and little Amanda travelled back to the Q Continuum, and she began her training, I took some time, set aside, just for you – just to see what you had in store for me."

Picard was barely breathing now, but he maintained his stoic expression, determined to withstand anything Q could throw at him. But, judging from how Q was behaving, he had already lost.

"I was particularly interested in what you thought of _me_." The eye contact that Q was currently holding between them was...electric, to say the least. "So I sifted through your memories of every time I came to visit, and I saw things from your perspective, and you know what – it provided some insight."

"Glad I could help," Picard muttered, and tried to duck underneath Q's arms, but the other being reached down and stopped him, forcing him to remain against the wall. Very deliberately, Q raised his hand and plucked the Starfleet insignia off Picard's jacket, letting it drop from his fingers onto the floor, and returned his arm back to where it had been.

"Some insight," Q mused, "that, perhaps, I sorely needed. After all, the truth isn't an easy thing, and I was being rather...stubborn, shall we say, on all the previous times I came to visit. You used to hate me, you used to wish that me and the Q Continuum would just cease to exist, but then – well, for some reason, that all changed.

"Remember dear Vash? You didn't want to rescue her. You didn't even want her around when I decided to drop in. You wanted to hide her from me. Why was that, Jean-Luc? Were you embarrassed? Hmm? And when I offered to take her on a jaunt around the universe, and she accepted, you were jealous, weren't you? Care to explain why?"

Q didn't wait for Picard to even _attempt _to answer. "And then, when you looked back on it all and remembered the time that I admitted Riker into the Q for a short while, you were discomfited. You didn't like that I had paid more attention to him than you, even though it had happened ages ago and all you could recollect of the incident were a few dim memories."

Q paused and leant back a little to observe more of Picard's expression. He was staring off at some invisible point over Q's shoulder, and very decidedly, not reacting to anything coming out of Q's mouth. Alright, then – see if he could resist _this_.

Q leant forwards until their cheeks were barely touching, his lips at Picard's ear. The captain tensed, and he unconsciously pushed outwards, trying to regain some of the reassuring personal space that humans so loved, but Q wasn't going to be budged that easily. "And remember that time we were on the shuttle together?" he whispered. "Of course you do. You're thinking about it right now. See, I have a hotline, direct to your thoughts. And there was all that enclosed space, and I was prattling on about something inconsequential, silly me, and all you were thinking about was how perfect our surroundings were. And then I came forward, and I bent over, and I whispered in your ear, _like so_..." Those two soft words were accompanied by the undercurrent of a decidedly non-human hiss and Q quickly shifted, his arms moving down to wrap around Picard's waist and to intertwine their legs, until they were pressed flush against each other, Picard's back still on the wall.

"...and you could _feel _me, my breath against your skin, and you thought, what a shame he isn't human, but that didn't stop you, did it? It's such a reckless thing, _love_. No regard for the human it's possessing, just pure, blind instinct. It could've been anyone, _mon capitaine_. It could've been dear Beverly, or Deanna, or William Riker, had you been so inclined, but it was _me_.

"And I was _flattered_."

Q turned his head slightly, and that was all that was needed so he could press his lips to Picard's cheek. A quick intake of breath at this show of affection was his reward, and the sound of adrenaline racing through the captain's veins, accompanied by blood that was heading up to his face and...other places. Q smiled, and kissed Picard again, gently moving around, grazing his skin with these _human _demonstrations until he reached Picard's lips. There he waited, gentlemanlike and courteous, until Picard summoned up the courage to move forward that half-inch, and then they were _properly _kissing.

Q was often surprised by Jean-Luc Picard, and these surprises hadn't ceased in the years they'd known each other. Now, he was surprised again as Picard responded with much more passion than he had thought the restrained human male capable of. Q's hands were strong on Picard's waist as the shorter man reached up to shakily run his fingers through Q's hair. As immortal and omnipotent as he was, Q was still in a human body, and was therefore prone to the human reactions. He could've easily blocked them out, but he didn't want to. He wanted to experience this.

So as Picard's fingers roamed through his hair, he gave a small grunting noise, which was meant to indicate pleasure but, since his lips were currently occupied, could've meant anything. It was accompanied, however, by an approving sound not seconds later, so Picard didn't bother to draw back and ask if anything was wrong.

Q pulled back slightly. "Mm, I think I...rather like this," he moaned.

"Good, because I've been waiting far too long," Picard answered huskily.

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**Give me an R! An E! A V! An I! An E! A W! What does that spel - oh. Well, look at that.**


End file.
